November 15, 2025 • 64 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
The man's name was Altonbotter, and he woke up because he was cold.
He was shivering.
And he woke up and he looked around.
I know this place.
He realized he was in jail, laying on the cold concrete floor
(00:31):
Shivering because the outside temperature was below freezing and inside wasn't much warmer.
And he looked at himself and he realized all he had on was his underwear.
Hey, anybody out there?
(00:53):
Where's my clothes?
A policeman came in to the jail cell and said, Oh, you're awake.
Alton Batter said, yes, I'm awake.
Where are my clothes?
The policeman said, well, where'd you leave them?
(01:14):
Alzheimer Botter said, I don't know where I left them.
The policeman said, Well, the good news is I have your pants and shirt.
The bad news is that's all I have.
He said, Well, let's start with that.
Can I have my pants and my shirt?
And so the policeman gave him his pants and shirt, and he said, uh
(01:39):
Do you know what happened last night?
Now, I've used the name Altenbalter.
I just know him as Abba.
That's what I called him.
Abba said.
I don't remember what happened last night.
The policeman said, Well, it's probably a pretty good thing you don't remember what happened last night.
(02:01):
You were terrible last night.
You tore up the town.
Ava says, No, not again.
You see, Ava was just a young man.
Barely twenty.
(02:23):
And he was already known as the town drunk.
Now the town wasn't very large.
The town only had about 2,000 people.
The town was in a beautiful setting.
All around the town there was
Fields that at one time, oh, the wheat harvest that used to take place here during communist time
(02:54):
Also around town, there was a nice apple orchard that used to provide enough apples for at least a third of the country of Mongolia.
And this was the beautiful place that Abba lived.
(03:16):
But the people here in this town now didn't really have a purpose.
No one was taking care of the apple orchard.
No one was planting the wheat to harvest.
No one was taking care of the irrigation equipment.
(03:37):
And there wasn't much for people to do.
So anytime there was a gentleman that happened to have a little bit of money and was able to afford a little bit of alcohol, they would call Abba.
Because Abba liked to have a good time.
He liked to share and that kind of thing.
But Abba didn't know when to stop.
(04:01):
And last night was one of those times.
He said, Come on, please man, where are my my my socks and my boots?
I I need my socks.
I I can't
Live without my boots.
Eastman said, well, let's go for a walk.
It's cold outside.
(04:21):
Do you want your boots?
Let's go for a walk.
And so the policeman took him for a walk down the center of town and he said, You see that window over there?
Why don't you go knock on that door and ask them if they know where your boots are?
So Abba went over and knocked on the door, and the person that came to the door was not too happy to see Abba.
(04:47):
Yes, I know where your boot is.
Take your boot.
Put it on your foot.
Keep that foot warm.
Although says, my other boot, please.
Oh, it's not here.
The policemen had to continue walking him down the street until they found another broken window.
(05:09):
And another angry person inside the home where the window was.
And another person telling him, you need to get help.
We don't want you in this town anymore.
We don't want the problems that you cause.
And Abba was just ashamed.
(05:32):
His friend came to the police department and took him from the jail.
He says, Abba, you really need to get help.
Abba said, Yes, I need help, but I I I've tried different things and I just can't stop.
And his friend said, Yes, I know you've tried many, many, many things, and there's only one thing that you haven't tried that will help.
(05:57):
And I was saying, I need help.
What is it that I haven't tried?
His friend said, you need Jesus.
No, no, not Jesus.
I don't want to know about Jesus.
I don't want to be associated with those Christians.
Those Christians are worse than being drunk.
(06:19):
Abba, really?
A boot through the windows?
Waking up in your underwear in the freezing jail cell?
Christianity is worse than being drunk?
His friend said there's only one problem.
(06:41):
There's only one Christian church here in this town.
And they're different.
They meet on Saturday.
I said, okay, I'll go.
(07:01):
And so he went to church.
That church the pastor was preaching.
A message for Mother's Day and about how much God loves you more than your mother.
(07:21):
And that touched Abba's heart.
And that day Abba invited Jesus into his heart.
The church welcomed Abba with open arms.
They were excited that he was there.
They encouraged him and helped him day by day, week by week, month by month, to overcome his alcoholism.
(07:54):
Now there's a whole lot I could tell you about Abba, but I'm going to tell you right now he's a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
And it happened because that little church and the that little town was willing to let the town drunk
(08:16):
Come to church
Open your Bibles to John chapter four.
John chapter four we find a
A story there that all of us know quite well.
(08:38):
If you have read the Bible at all, it is an exciting story.
Jesus and his disciples are traveling
John chapter 4.
Begin reading with verse 1.
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It says, Therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized.
More disciples than John the Baptist.
Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
(09:20):
But he needed to go through Samaria.
Did you hear those words?
He needed to go through Samaria.
So those words needed.
Um
(09:42):
That same word in the Greek is used a few other times.
In John 3:7, Jesus used it talking to Nicodemus a couple times.
You must
Need it.
You must be born again.
John 3.
14.
The Son of Man must be lifted up
(10:03):
John 9, 4, it's also quoted there.
Must work the works of him who sent me.
This needed to, this must happen.
John 20 verse 9.
Must rise from the dead.
This needed to, this must thing that's taking place in John chapter 4, this is an an expression for
(10:25):
How do I say divine plan?
It wasn't that this was the only route Jesus and his disciples.
could take.
There was a normal route that most Jews took that did not entail going through Samaria.
But here, as John writes this story, it says he needed, he must go through Samaria.
(10:54):
It was part of God's divine plan.
And Jesus was all about doing the will of his Father.
Not doing his own thinking for himself, not doing what was common for the world around him
Not doing what was customary for other Jews, but to do what his father instructed him to do.
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And so scripture tells us he needed to go through Samaria.
We keep reading here.
Verses 5 and 6.
It says, So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sikar.
near the plot of ground where Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
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Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well
It was about the sixth hour.
Notice again it talks about Samaria.
Now, we don't often spend a lot of time talking about Samaritans.
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Unless we're telling the story of the good Samaritan.
Do you know who the Samaritans were
Do you know who they were?
Yeah.
They're not very well defined.
You remember as you study the Old Testament, there was a time when Israel was taken captive.
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The ten northern tribes of Israel were taken captive by the Assyrians.
Now you can read the story in 2 Kings chapter 17.
They were taken captive by the Assyrians, and they were taken into captivity.
And the land was going to be left vacant, and the Assyrian king says, No, we can't do that.
And so he moved in some other people that were not
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from Israel, and he moved them in to that peri place where the ten kingdoms lived.
And those people became known as the Samaritan Samarians.
They lived in Samaria.
Now, they were from different countries that Assyria had conquered.
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And so they were
A mixed race.
And they were a mixed race because they were also mixed with some of the the Israelite people.
And they were mixed in their theology because the Assyrian king also sent a priest.
That was there, that had lived there in the area, to teach them what the people were supposed to believe for the God of that area
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And so they were a very mixed-up people.
And while Jews hated the Romans.
While they hated other nationalities also, they despised the Samaritans.
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And that is why often they would take the long way around instead of going through Samaria.
And so that's why John, when he is writing this, he says Jesus needed to go through Samaria.
There was a place, a reason for this.
(14:27):
And Jesus sits down and says at Jacob's well, because he is tired.
When we read these stories, they're not just there to uh, I should say, these details.
They are not there just to
Fill in the pages, they are there for a very specific reason.
(14:51):
As if the writer is tapping you on the shoulder and saying, Hey, listen up.
There's a whole lot of history back here.
And if you don't know all of this history back here, you're going to miss something in this story here.
Oh, you can read the story.
And you can get something out of the story.
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But if you only read the story and you don't read the Old Testament portion that goes with the stories, you're not going to understand all the
All of the details about why things are happening the way things are happening.
Jacob's well.
(15:34):
You can read about there in Genesis chapter 33, connecting with the the Old Testament.
We read here also that this was taking place.
At the sixth hour.
The sixth hour, John uses that expression twice in the book of John.
He uses that expression here in John chapter 4, and he also uses that expression in John chapter 19.
(16:03):
Now the sixth hour is about noontime.
In John 19, do you remember what was going on?
Yeah, that was when Jesus was being uh tried.
And he was in Pilate's court about the sixth hour.
And about the sixth hour, Pilate came and said, What do you want me to do with this man named Jesus?
(16:29):
And the people shouted,
Crucify him.
About the sixth.
Some of these connections can be important.
The sixth hour over here at the end of John.
The sixth hour here at the beginning of John.
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One group wants to get rid of Jesus.
This woman.
Let's keep reading.
Also, we're here at the the well.
When you think about the Old Testament, do you know any well stories?
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Abraham has a son named Isaac who needs a wife.
Abraham sends his servant Eleazar to find a wife from back home among his family.
Eleazar goes and finds Rebecca at a well
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You know any other well stories in the Old Testament?
Jacob.
Yeah.
Not only did he dig this well, but he also went and
Found a wife at a well.
And then there was a man named Moses, and he also found a wife at a well
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And then there's a man named Jesus, and he found a woman at the well.
I know she didn't become his physical bride, but she became part of the family of God that became his spiritual bride.
(18:30):
Something taking place at the well.
Verses 7 through 9.
Let's keep reading.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food
Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?
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For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans
Yes, this woman comes to the well at noontime.
Now many people have have read into this.
She's coming at noontime because
She didn't want to come when other people come to draw water.
She wanted to come when other people were not there.
The scripture doesn't tell us that
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I mean, she may have come early in the morning and been working, and now she needed more water.
And so she came to the well at noon because there was a need at home for more water.
Or it could be, yes, she wanted to come at a time when the well was quiet, when the sun was high.
(19:41):
when it was hot and people don't go outside at noontime in Arizona.
I mean uh
In Samaria
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She came to the well at noon.
She mentions that Jews do not have dealings with Samaritans.
This
woman coming to the well, Jesus asking her for a drink of water.
(20:26):
I mean, this is an unusual thing to happen.
This woman has has three strikes against her even before the conversation ever starts.
There's an ethnic barrier that has taken place.
That is a barrier that is hard to overcome.
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Hard to overcome, especially for the Jewish individuals.
Hard to overcome because of their hatred for anyone who was not a child of Abraham
Gender barrier.
Rabbis were instructed that they were not supposed to greet females.
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Now there could be conversations and things, but out in the marketplace, out walking the road, they were not to greet females.
The religious barrier.
It would have been
The religious barrier was huge because one group Mount worships in Jerusalem, the other worships.
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In Samaria.
An alternative worship site had been set up.
And so their theology was a bit askew.
But Jesus, to a person that is outside his ethnicity, outside of his religion, and a female, he engages in conversation with her.
(21:57):
Asking for a favor.
Why do you ask for a favor
You ask for a favor, number one, the biggest reason is, is because you have a need.
And so you asked for a favor out of that need.
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But Jesus was not just asking for a drink of water.
He could have easily waited until the disciples came back from town and no, they wouldn't have bought brought bottled water, would they?
Maybe they had the supplies necessary to get their own water from the well.
(22:41):
Jesus could have easily waited.
But instead, he engages in conversation to show that he is trying to break down the walls that separate.
He's not worried that she is a woman.
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He is not worried that she is a
Different ethnicity.
She he is not worried that she is a different religion than he is.
We worry about those things, don't we?
Have you ever noticed in our society how we like to divide people?
(23:32):
This last week I was walking across the parking lot at my our apartments and as I was walking across I I was headed over to to
grocery store sprouts, you know, across the road, and I was headed that direction and uh looking for some food for that we needed for supper.
And so I was
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I like food and so I was kind of in a hurry because I wanted to eat.
And as I was going across the parking lot, someone drove their car behind me and I I heard them holler out.
And at first I just kept walking, and then they called out again, and I'm like, are you talking to me?
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And I I turned around and uh
I look in the the car and there are two young men dressed in their nice white shirts.
And uh oh man, I don't have time for this.
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But I was several steps away.
I turned around and I walked back to their car and engaged them in conversation and they asked me
What I knew about the Latter-day Saints.
They asked me if I had a Book of Mormon.
They asked me if I had ever read it
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And when I answered yes to all these questions, they were like, and what'd you think?
And I said, well, I'm a pastor at the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
What is that?
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Yeah, that means there's still people in our area that don't know about us.
They begin to ask me some questions about Seventh-day Adventist.
And I'm hungry.
I got places to go.
food I want to eat.
But I stood out there beside their car and engaged them in conversation and I told them about Seventh day Adventist and I told them about all the things that that we have in common with them and
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They were quite impressed.
You guys have a prophet too?
Wow.
That's cool.
I told them we grew up about the same time period.
Wow, that's neat.
I told them that we were very mission-minded and they were excited about this.
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Then they said, well, what's the differences?
And I began to tell them some of the differences.
And after I listed off several differences, they said, Why do you guys go to church on Saturday?
Oh, I don't have time for this.
You know, it takes time to give a good Sabbath Bible study.
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But I took time and gave them a Sabbath Bible study, and they said, Yeah, I we know those scriptures.
We understand.
Oh, okay.
We're gonna worship on Saturdays in heaven?
I'm just telling you what the scripture says
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Now I'm praying they would drive back by again.
I I didn't get to finish
But we need to engage individuals.
Have the opportunity to talk with them.
Have the opportunity to share with them.
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People are curious and want to know, what do you believe about Jesus?
Why is he your best friend?
This woman was curious and wanted to know.
We keep reading here in the verses, it says, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who
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It is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with.
The well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?
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She wanted to engage in conversation.
She was even willing to ask the right questions
This living water.
Now, this living water, it literally means
Running water.
Fresh water.
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Water that is not in a cistern that is stagnant.
Water isn't that is not in a in a in a pond or lake that is stagnant.
It means moving water.
Fresh water.
This is living water.
Deep water out of the well is living water.
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She understands living water this way, but she also may have understood what Jesus was talking about.
The Old Testament talks about keep your finger here, John 4.
We're going to come right back to it, but turn to Isaiah chapter 12.
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Few Old Testament texts that kinda go along with this, Isaiah chapter 12.
I know I didn't put the words on the screen for you this time.
So uh making you do a little work for it, helping you to dig for yourself here just a little bit.
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Isaiah chapter twelve
Verse 3, notice what it says here.
It says, Therefore, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
This kind of reference that this this living water is more than just what you drink.
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It is a a salvation thing that is taking place.
You're there in the Old Testament.
Turn over a few pages.
Jeremiah chapter 2.
Still there in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah chapter 2.
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Jeremiah chapter two, verse thirteen
Says, for my people have committed two evils.
They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters.
Who's the fountain of living waters?
Jesus, God here, for my people have committed two evils.
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They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns.
that can hold no water.
She may have been acquainted with these scriptures.
She may have understood that when
When Jesus was talking about living water, he was talking about those areas of salvation that could be available for her.
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Come back to John.
I'm not going to take you to John 4 just yet.
I want you to turn over to John 7.
John 7, where G John mentions this living water again through the words of Jesus.
John 7, verse 37.
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It says on the last day of that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
But this he spoke concerning the Spirit
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whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
She may not have understood it in that great of detail how this living water represented the Holy Spirit filling the life.
But when John did, and when John writes in John 7, he explains it in the full detail that how the Holy Spirit is is going to be working in people's lives.
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And in John 7 here, he kind of has in mind the you go study it now, Ezekiel chapter 47.
And he may have had in mind also Revelation chapter 21 and 22, where it talks about the water that is going to be coming forth from the throne of God, how the Holy Spirit is going to be available.
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for all.
Come back to John chapter four
Verse 12, she's asks, are you greater than our father Jacob?
And when I read that, I just want to shake my head.
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If only she knew.
Continue on verses thirteen
Through fifteen it says, Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
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But the water that I shall give him
w will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.
Oh, she she she she catches on, but yet she she she she doesn't catch on.
(34:18):
I mean we're here in John chapter 4.
Do you know what was preceding John chapter 4?
Ah, yeah, you got my sense of humor here, didn't you?
Chapter 3.
Do you remember what's in chapter 3
Yeah, John 3.
16, and who was he talking to?
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Nicodemus, the Pharisee that came to him at nighttime.
Asking questions.
The Pharisee that came at nighttime that didn't understand what Jesus was saying to him.
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Here a woman, Samaritan woman, coming to him in broad daylight, I mean not coming to him, but meeting him at the well in broad daylight, and she doesn't seem to understand fully as well either.
But she seems to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
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Jesus said, whoever drinks this water will never thirst.
Keep your finger here, John 4.
We're going to come back to it.
Isaiah chapter 49.
Isaiah chapter forty-nine, verse ten.
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It says, They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them.
For he who has mercy on them will lead them even by the springs of water.
He will guide them.
I mean, this is beautiful imagery that is coming from the Old Testament that Jesus is drawing upon when he is referring to or talking with this woman that he is here at the well with.
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I hope she understood some of these Old Testament scriptures and that she had something to to to draw from.
Oh, in Revelation 7, it says those that are following Jesus are He's going to take care of them, and they are not going to hunger or thirst.
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John Six
Tells us that Jesus is going to take care of us.
He's going to satisfy all our needs.
Is Jesus your everything?
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Verse 14 says that when we're going to have this fountain of water springing up,
Or some of your versions say welling up.
Do you know what it's like to have a fountain of water welling up?
Some of you remember singing that song, uh, spring up, O well, within my soul.
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That fountain of water that keeps coming up over and over.
This is the same word that's used in Acts chapter 3.
Acts chapter 3, when Peter and John go to pray.
They met the lame man there at the temple.
Peter doesn't have any any funds to give him.
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He says, But I'm going to give you what I have in the name of Jesus, rise.
Walk and it says the man went springing up.
Some of your versions, leaping.
It's the same Greek word that's going to happen with the fountains.
They're going to come leaping out of us.
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We can't keep silent.
It says he went walking and I mean leaping and praising God because of his goodness.
It's that same word in Acts chapter 14 verse 10, where another one healed, sprang up.
This this living water is going to come from inside.
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It's going to to spring up.
And overflow us.
Keep reading here verse sixteen.
It says, Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here
The woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said to her, You have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you are now have is not your husband
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In that you spoke truly.
The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worship on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place one ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman,
Believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
(39:26):
You worship what you do not know.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit.
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Oh, Jesus kind of twists things here and begins to get personal with her and says, Go call your husband.
She's not sure about that.
She says, I don't have a husband.
Jesus says, that's true.
(40:16):
You've had five husbands
Now, some individuals say, oh, she's had five husbands.
That means she's gotten divorced and remarried, divorced, remarried, divorced, remarried.
She's an immoral person.
She came comes out here to the well at noonday.
She's an immoral person.
That's reading something that the text doesn't say.
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We don't know.
Maybe she is divorced.
Maybe five husbands died.
That would be another problem.
Why is she living with someone that is not her husband?
Why are they not legally married?
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That's a question.
We don't know the answer to.
But what we do know, Jesus knows her past.
Jesus knows her, and at this point Jesus reveals enough to her to show that he knows her.
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And he says, I still love you.
I'm engaging in conversation with you.
Even though there are a lot of barriers between us.
You know what Jesus says to you?
I know your past.
(41:52):
Now I want you to stop and think for just a moment about your past.
Are you excited for everybody to know about your past?
Are you excited that God knows about your past?
I mean, the Seventh-day Adventist, we have a uh a wonderful message about the sanctuary.
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We have a wonderful message about the judgment.
You remember that message?
Sometimes we're embarrassed by that.
Friends, Jesus knows your past.
He knows your family secrets.
He knows the sin that you have in your life, even the sin that
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Your spouse may not know about.
And Jesus says, I love you.
I died for you.
Because I love you.
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Even though I know all about you.
This is good news.
Friends, that's good news.
Come judgment day
Right?
Amen.
(43:21):
That's good news.
Come judgment day.
Jesus knows all about your past.
He knows that list of sins has been kept in the books.
And he says, I love you anyway.
Hallelujah
(43:41):
What an awesome God we have.
And He's trying to communicate this to this woman here at the well in broad daylight.
And she wants to change the topic.
(44:02):
It's easier for us to change the topic when it gets uncomfortable
She wants to talk theology and have a little debate with him.
What is true worship?
We we worship on this mountain and you guys worship on in Jerusalem at Mount Moriah.
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Is there one that's
We can handle talking theology.
We can handle theological debates.
But it's this getting to know each other.
This touchy-feely stuff
(44:47):
We don't like that very well.
We don't want people to know our stuff.
And so we kinda
Where should we worship?
How should we worship?
What kind of music should we have at worship?
(45:07):
How should we dress?
What should we wear?
Argue about this stuff.
What kind of food should we eat?
What should we not eat?
We would like to debate these things.
Is this a clean food or is this not a clean food?
We we want to argue about this stuff instead of taking care of what really needs to be taken care of
(45:35):
Jesus was was trying to But Jesus doesn't go back there
She's asked a theological question.
He gives her a theological answer.
He tells her
I'm sorry the Samaritans they're not they don't know what they're worshiping.
(46:01):
They worship on this mountain, but that's not the right way, place, time.
They're worshiping idols.
They're worshiping demons.
The Jews worship where they're supposed to worship because salvation is from the Jews.
(46:23):
I mean, if you go through and you begin to study, you begin to unpack this, salvation is from the Jews because God made a covenant with Abraham.
And God told Abraham, as part of the covenant, you will be a blessing to all nations.
Sometimes the Jews forgot that.
(46:45):
They forget that God called them out of Egypt, and God tried to save as many of the Egyptians as he could.
When he called them out of Egypt.
Several came with them out of Egypt.
He gave them the promised land of Canaan.
And we we're reading in our sabis go lesson of how many of those people in Canaan are getting destroyed
(47:12):
But God saved as many of them as he could.
As many as would accept the message.
God's not trying to kill people.
He's not trying to punish people.
He's not trying to keep people out of heaven.
He's trying to find every way he can to incorporate people into
(47:34):
The system of Judaism.
I know some of you all of a sudden go, well, the Bible text says all Israel will be saved.
Somebody asked me about that this last week.
And I said, well, that's what the text says.
I figure Paul knows what he's talking about.
(47:58):
And I gave him a Bible study, and only Jesus is the true Israel.
And you and I are only Israel.
We're true Israel if we're in Jesus.
Oh Yeah, all Israel will be saved
(48:19):
Salvation comes from the Jews.
The Jews had the sanctuary service trying to teach them the proper message about Jesus.
The Jews had the message of Messiah's coming.
Yeah?
Samaritans, they had a message that there was going to be a Messiah.
She knew about a Messiah that was coming, but she did not understand it correctly
(48:43):
It's okay, the Jews didn't understand it correctly either.
Jesus tried to straighten her out with her theology there in verse 23 and 24.
But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
(49:05):
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
She understands a little bit, but not fully
She is though is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and so she continues the conversation and she says
(49:31):
The woman says to him, I know the Messiah is coming who is called the Christ.
When he comes, he will tell us all things
She wants to to continue the the discourse.
She doesn't doesn't fight against what he has said.
She carries on
The conversation she wants to know more about the Messiah because she has a hunger and thirst on the inside.
(49:55):
And Jesus says to her, I who speak to you am He
I wish the disciples had not shown up at this point in time.
I wish we had more conversation that took place.
(50:19):
I wish I knew what if there was more dialogue and what else had been said.
But according to what is written.
That is the description that Jesus gave to her.
I wish I understood.
Why Jesus gave this crystal clear affirmation of who he was to a Samaritan woman
(50:47):
Instead of Nicodemus in chapter 3.
Or instead of to his disciples prior to this time
Why her?
I mean, in my way of thinking, when I look at scripture, wrong ethnicity
(51:10):
Wrong gender for Jesus to be revealing this to for this time and place.
Wrong religious affiliation.
Why would he reveal that he is the Messiah to her?
(51:36):
The best answer I've come up with is God's ways are not my ways.
God's ways are not our ways.
God does not think like we think here on earth today.
Hallelujah.
(51:57):
That woman that was the wrong ethnicity, the wrong religious affiliation.
She scampers away and goes into town when the disciples show up
(52:17):
Too many men, only one woman.
A conversation takes place with Jesus and his disciples that's recorded at this time.
It says the woman left her water pot and went away.
The disciples came and said, Here, eat something, Rabbi.
(52:43):
He said to them, I have food to eat of which you know not.
Therefore the disciples said to one another,
Has anyone brought him anything to eat?
Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his works.
(53:05):
Do you not say there are still four months and then the harvest?
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
Already ripe for harvest.
Where were they supposed to be looking?
(53:26):
Jerusalem was a long ways away.
Before these disciples were commissioned
Before they were sent out to the villages around them.
This woman goes back to her village and she proclaims in the village (53:47):
Come see a man that knows everything about me.
And it says the village came out to see him
And because of what they heard, because of what they saw, because of the way they were received by him, they invited him to stay.
(54:16):
Who was welcoming whom?
Were they welcoming Jesus into their village?
Or was Jesus welcoming them?
Into his harvest
(54:39):
What a story is here.
God wants to welcome all who are hungry and thirsty.
for righteousness.
His arms are wide open.
He wants you and you and you and you and you to come in.
(55:06):
To his house to be part of his harvest.
But he's not just worried about you, he has commissioned you to go to your village and to tell.
Come meet a friend who knows everything about me and loves me anyway
(55:33):
Friends, there's people that are looking for a place of belonging.
God has a place.
God has a place we learned last week for tax collectors.
God has a place for for the outcast.
(55:54):
God has a place for
Those that you think are not good enough.
For the drunkard in the village.
Avero, the praise team can come up now.
(56:16):
Avero Natalia
Had been living their life in comfort in their country of Chile.
They had been married for nine years.
They had a three-year-old child.
They went to church one day, and the pastor was preaching about
(56:40):
being a volunteer missionary and going out and telling other people about Jesus.
The couple looked at each other and they said
We have a three-year-old.
They would never want a family to come.
Number two, we are in our thirties.
(57:04):
They just are looking for college students to come be volunteers.
But they went and talked to the pastors, can said, asked, can we do this as a family?
Are we too old for this?
Is it only for university students?
(57:26):
And the pastor said, No, it's for everyone and anyone.
If you hear the Lord calling you to go, you should go as a missionary.
A couple wasn't sure about it, but they decided they would go to the find out what the training was like for volunteers.
(57:50):
And so they went to
the vividfaith.
org website.
They took the training for for volunteers.
At the end of their volunteer time, they were asked the question, Would you be willing to go if the right position became available for you?
And their reply was, Yeah, we could do one year in missions.
(58:18):
They weren't prepared for the reply.
They said, we have a place for you.
We want you to go to Easter Island.
Well, that's still part of Chile.
So yeah, we could do that.
Easter Island.
(58:39):
They said, uh, problem is we need you there in two weeks
Could you get ready in two weeks to go and serve?
Yeah, Avero and Natalyuk were not sure they could get ready in two weeks either.
But they said if God wants us there, he can work miracles and he can make it happen.
(59:00):
And so Alvaro sold his dentist practice.
Natalia left her place of employment as a physical therapist.
They sold their belongings.
Because they were submitting their plans to God.
Two weeks later, they were on an airplane that flew for five hours and 30 minutes to Easter Island.
(59:28):
That was only 2,350 miles from the next closest airport.
You realize 2,350 miles on an island, your next closest airport is 2,350 miles away.
(59:55):
While it is still part of Chile, their words are it is a very different culture.
In Chile, it was mostly Roman Catholic.
Strong influence there on the mainland in Chile.
People on the island, they were not Roman Catholic.
(01:00:21):
They had ancestor worship.
How do you relate to people with ancestor worship?
How do you relate to people that are used to worshiping their ancestors?
Easter Island, 63 square miles.
(01:00:43):
That's very different than living in Chile that has a that spreads for 2,650 miles.
Easter Island, three thousand eight hundred people
That's not a large mission field.
(01:01:12):
And the tides didn't always allow the boats to dock, and sometimes the boats simply moved on.
Complicating matters was the fact that people on Easter Island did not like individuals from the mainland.
(01:01:34):
And so Alvero and Natalia began their work
And God did amazing things.
Averyl began to work in tourism instead of dentistry.
(01:01:54):
His wife, Natalia, got a job at the local hospital.
They bought a small motorcycle and they began going door to door, making visits, helping people.
Engaging in conversations and giving Bible studies.
(01:02:16):
The first Sabbath
They went to the local Seventh-day Adventist church and there were ten people there.
Their words, elderly.
(01:02:37):
For the next year, they did everything they could in that island to tell people about Jesus.
They started a Pathfinder Club and they had 25 children show up for their first meeting.
They started an adventure program.
(01:02:58):
They had thirty children show up for adventures.
After Pathfinders and Adventures started, the children began bringing their parent to church.
(01:03:18):
At the end of one year, they had a Pathfinder and Adventure program with 95 children in the program.
They were having baptisms because they were g willing to give one year.
(01:03:51):
Are you willing to go?
to your village because of what God has done in your life
Is a fountain springing up from inside of you
(01:04:15):
Do you know people that you can tell?
Do you know people that you can say, come
And see this man who knows everything about me
The man's name was Altonbotter, and he woke up because he was cold.
He was shivering.
And he woke up and he looked around.
I know this place.
He realized he was in jail, laying on the cold concrete floor
(00:31):
Shivering because the outside temperature was below freezing and inside wasn't much warmer.
And he looked at himself and he realized all he had on was his underwear.
Hey, anybody out there?
(00:53):
Where's my clothes?
A policeman came in to the jail cell and said, Oh, you're awake.
Alton Batter said, yes, I'm awake.
Where are my clothes?
The policeman said, well, where'd you leave them?
(01:14):
Alzheimer Botter said, I don't know where I left them.
The policeman said, Well, the good news is I have your pants and shirt.
The bad news is that's all I have.
He said, Well, let's start with that.
Can I have my pants and my shirt?
And so the policeman gave him his pants and shirt, and he said, uh
(01:39):
Do you know what happened last night?
Now, I've used the name Altenbalter.
I just know him as Abba.
That's what I called him.
Abba said.
I don't remember what happened last night.
The policeman said, Well, it's probably a pretty good thing you don't remember what happened last night.
(02:01):
You were terrible last night.
You tore up the town.
Ava says, No, not again.
You see, Ava was just a young man.
Barely twenty.
(02:23):
And he was already known as the town drunk.
Now the town wasn't very large.
The town only had about 2,000 people.
The town was in a beautiful setting.
All around the town there was
Fields that at one time, oh, the wheat harvest that used to take place here during communist time
(02:54):
Also around town, there was a nice apple orchard that used to provide enough apples for at least a third of the country of Mongolia.
And this was the beautiful place that Abba lived.
(03:16):
But the people here in this town now didn't really have a purpose.
No one was taking care of the apple orchard.
No one was planting the wheat to harvest.
No one was taking care of the irrigation equipment.
(03:37):
And there wasn't much for people to do.
So anytime there was a gentleman that happened to have a little bit of money and was able to afford a little bit of alcohol, they would call Abba.
Because Abba liked to have a good time.
He liked to share and that kind of thing.
But Abba didn't know when to stop.
(04:01):
And last night was one of those times.
He said, Come on, please man, where are my my my socks and my boots?
I I need my socks.
I I can't
Live without my boots.
Eastman said, well, let's go for a walk.
It's cold outside.
(04:21):
Do you want your boots?
Let's go for a walk.
And so the policeman took him for a walk down the center of town and he said, You see that window over there?
Why don't you go knock on that door and ask them if they know where your boots are?
So Abba went over and knocked on the door, and the person that came to the door was not too happy to see Abba.
(04:47):
Yes, I know where your boot is.
Take your boot.
Put it on your foot.
Keep that foot warm.
Although says, my other boot, please.
Oh, it's not here.
The policemen had to continue walking him down the street until they found another broken window.
(05:09):
And another angry person inside the home where the window was.
And another person telling him, you need to get help.
We don't want you in this town anymore.
We don't want the problems that you cause.
And Abba was just ashamed.
(05:32):
His friend came to the police department and took him from the jail.
He says, Abba, you really need to get help.
Abba said, Yes, I need help, but I I I've tried different things and I just can't stop.
And his friend said, Yes, I know you've tried many, many, many things, and there's only one thing that you haven't tried that will help.
(05:57):
And I was saying, I need help.
What is it that I haven't tried?
His friend said, you need Jesus.
No, no, not Jesus.
I don't want to know about Jesus.
I don't want to be associated with those Christians.
Those Christians are worse than being drunk.
(06:19):
Abba, really?
A boot through the windows?
Waking up in your underwear in the freezing jail cell?
Christianity is worse than being drunk?
His friend said there's only one problem.
(06:41):
There's only one Christian church here in this town.
And they're different.
They meet on Saturday.
I said, okay, I'll go.
(07:01):
And so he went to church.
That church the pastor was preaching.
A message for Mother's Day and about how much God loves you more than your mother.
(07:21):
And that touched Abba's heart.
And that day Abba invited Jesus into his heart.
The church welcomed Abba with open arms.
They were excited that he was there.
They encouraged him and helped him day by day, week by week, month by month, to overcome his alcoholism.
(07:54):
Now there's a whole lot I could tell you about Abba, but I'm going to tell you right now he's a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
And it happened because that little church and the that little town was willing to let the town drunk
(08:16):
Come to church
Open your Bibles to John chapter four.
John chapter four we find a
A story there that all of us know quite well.
(08:38):
If you have read the Bible at all, it is an exciting story.
Jesus and his disciples are traveling
John chapter 4.
Begin reading with verse 1.
(08:59):
It says, Therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized.
More disciples than John the Baptist.
Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
(09:20):
But he needed to go through Samaria.
Did you hear those words?
He needed to go through Samaria.
So those words needed.
Um
(09:42):
That same word in the Greek is used a few other times.
In John 3:7, Jesus used it talking to Nicodemus a couple times.
You must
Need it.
You must be born again.
John 3.
14.
The Son of Man must be lifted up
(10:03):
John 9, 4, it's also quoted there.
Must work the works of him who sent me.
This needed to, this must happen.
John 20 verse 9.
Must rise from the dead.
This needed to, this must thing that's taking place in John chapter 4, this is an an expression for
(10:25):
How do I say divine plan?
It wasn't that this was the only route Jesus and his disciples.
could take.
There was a normal route that most Jews took that did not entail going through Samaria.
But here, as John writes this story, it says he needed, he must go through Samaria.
(10:54):
It was part of God's divine plan.
And Jesus was all about doing the will of his Father.
Not doing his own thinking for himself, not doing what was common for the world around him
Not doing what was customary for other Jews, but to do what his father instructed him to do.
(11:20):
And so scripture tells us he needed to go through Samaria.
We keep reading here.
Verses 5 and 6.
It says, So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sikar.
near the plot of ground where Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
(11:44):
Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well
It was about the sixth hour.
Notice again it talks about Samaria.
Now, we don't often spend a lot of time talking about Samaritans.
(12:06):
Unless we're telling the story of the good Samaritan.
Do you know who the Samaritans were
Do you know who they were?
Yeah.
They're not very well defined.
You remember as you study the Old Testament, there was a time when Israel was taken captive.
(12:31):
The ten northern tribes of Israel were taken captive by the Assyrians.
Now you can read the story in 2 Kings chapter 17.
They were taken captive by the Assyrians, and they were taken into captivity.
And the land was going to be left vacant, and the Assyrian king says, No, we can't do that.
And so he moved in some other people that were not
(12:55):
from Israel, and he moved them in to that peri place where the ten kingdoms lived.
And those people became known as the Samaritan Samarians.
They lived in Samaria.
Now, they were from different countries that Assyria had conquered.
(13:17):
And so they were
A mixed race.
And they were a mixed race because they were also mixed with some of the the Israelite people.
And they were mixed in their theology because the Assyrian king also sent a priest.
That was there, that had lived there in the area, to teach them what the people were supposed to believe for the God of that area
(13:45):
And so they were a very mixed-up people.
And while Jews hated the Romans.
While they hated other nationalities also, they despised the Samaritans.
(14:06):
And that is why often they would take the long way around instead of going through Samaria.
And so that's why John, when he is writing this, he says Jesus needed to go through Samaria.
There was a place, a reason for this.
(14:27):
And Jesus sits down and says at Jacob's well, because he is tired.
When we read these stories, they're not just there to uh, I should say, these details.
They are not there just to
Fill in the pages, they are there for a very specific reason.
(14:51):
As if the writer is tapping you on the shoulder and saying, Hey, listen up.
There's a whole lot of history back here.
And if you don't know all of this history back here, you're going to miss something in this story here.
Oh, you can read the story.
And you can get something out of the story.
(15:14):
But if you only read the story and you don't read the Old Testament portion that goes with the stories, you're not going to understand all the
All of the details about why things are happening the way things are happening.
Jacob's well.
(15:34):
You can read about there in Genesis chapter 33, connecting with the the Old Testament.
We read here also that this was taking place.
At the sixth hour.
The sixth hour, John uses that expression twice in the book of John.
He uses that expression here in John chapter 4, and he also uses that expression in John chapter 19.
(16:03):
Now the sixth hour is about noontime.
In John 19, do you remember what was going on?
Yeah, that was when Jesus was being uh tried.
And he was in Pilate's court about the sixth hour.
And about the sixth hour, Pilate came and said, What do you want me to do with this man named Jesus?
(16:29):
And the people shouted,
Crucify him.
About the sixth.
Some of these connections can be important.
The sixth hour over here at the end of John.
The sixth hour here at the beginning of John.
(16:50):
One group wants to get rid of Jesus.
This woman.
Let's keep reading.
Also, we're here at the the well.
When you think about the Old Testament, do you know any well stories?
(17:12):
Abraham has a son named Isaac who needs a wife.
Abraham sends his servant Eleazar to find a wife from back home among his family.
Eleazar goes and finds Rebecca at a well
(17:39):
You know any other well stories in the Old Testament?
Jacob.
Yeah.
Not only did he dig this well, but he also went and
Found a wife at a well.
And then there was a man named Moses, and he also found a wife at a well
(18:03):
And then there's a man named Jesus, and he found a woman at the well.
I know she didn't become his physical bride, but she became part of the family of God that became his spiritual bride.
(18:30):
Something taking place at the well.
Verses 7 through 9.
Let's keep reading.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food
Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?
(18:57):
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans
Yes, this woman comes to the well at noontime.
Now many people have have read into this.
She's coming at noontime because
She didn't want to come when other people come to draw water.
She wanted to come when other people were not there.
The scripture doesn't tell us that
(19:19):
I mean, she may have come early in the morning and been working, and now she needed more water.
And so she came to the well at noon because there was a need at home for more water.
Or it could be, yes, she wanted to come at a time when the well was quiet, when the sun was high.
(19:41):
when it was hot and people don't go outside at noontime in Arizona.
I mean uh
In Samaria
(20:03):
She came to the well at noon.
She mentions that Jews do not have dealings with Samaritans.
This
woman coming to the well, Jesus asking her for a drink of water.
(20:26):
I mean, this is an unusual thing to happen.
This woman has has three strikes against her even before the conversation ever starts.
There's an ethnic barrier that has taken place.
That is a barrier that is hard to overcome.
(20:47):
Hard to overcome, especially for the Jewish individuals.
Hard to overcome because of their hatred for anyone who was not a child of Abraham
Gender barrier.
Rabbis were instructed that they were not supposed to greet females.
(21:11):
Now there could be conversations and things, but out in the marketplace, out walking the road, they were not to greet females.
The religious barrier.
It would have been
The religious barrier was huge because one group Mount worships in Jerusalem, the other worships.
(21:32):
In Samaria.
An alternative worship site had been set up.
And so their theology was a bit askew.
But Jesus, to a person that is outside his ethnicity, outside of his religion, and a female, he engages in conversation with her.
(21:57):
Asking for a favor.
Why do you ask for a favor
You ask for a favor, number one, the biggest reason is, is because you have a need.
And so you asked for a favor out of that need.
(22:19):
But Jesus was not just asking for a drink of water.
He could have easily waited until the disciples came back from town and no, they wouldn't have bought brought bottled water, would they?
Maybe they had the supplies necessary to get their own water from the well.
(22:41):
Jesus could have easily waited.
But instead, he engages in conversation to show that he is trying to break down the walls that separate.
He's not worried that she is a woman.
(23:03):
He is not worried that she is a
Different ethnicity.
She he is not worried that she is a different religion than he is.
We worry about those things, don't we?
Have you ever noticed in our society how we like to divide people?
(23:32):
This last week I was walking across the parking lot at my our apartments and as I was walking across I I was headed over to to
grocery store sprouts, you know, across the road, and I was headed that direction and uh looking for some food for that we needed for supper.
And so I was
(23:54):
I like food and so I was kind of in a hurry because I wanted to eat.
And as I was going across the parking lot, someone drove their car behind me and I I heard them holler out.
And at first I just kept walking, and then they called out again, and I'm like, are you talking to me?
(24:16):
And I I turned around and uh
I look in the the car and there are two young men dressed in their nice white shirts.
And uh oh man, I don't have time for this.
(24:36):
But I was several steps away.
I turned around and I walked back to their car and engaged them in conversation and they asked me
What I knew about the Latter-day Saints.
They asked me if I had a Book of Mormon.
They asked me if I had ever read it
(24:58):
And when I answered yes to all these questions, they were like, and what'd you think?
And I said, well, I'm a pastor at the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
What is that?
(25:18):
Yeah, that means there's still people in our area that don't know about us.
They begin to ask me some questions about Seventh-day Adventist.
And I'm hungry.
I got places to go.
food I want to eat.
But I stood out there beside their car and engaged them in conversation and I told them about Seventh day Adventist and I told them about all the things that that we have in common with them and
(25:50):
They were quite impressed.
You guys have a prophet too?
Wow.
That's cool.
I told them we grew up about the same time period.
Wow, that's neat.
I told them that we were very mission-minded and they were excited about this.
(26:11):
Then they said, well, what's the differences?
And I began to tell them some of the differences.
And after I listed off several differences, they said, Why do you guys go to church on Saturday?
Oh, I don't have time for this.
You know, it takes time to give a good Sabbath Bible study.
(26:36):
But I took time and gave them a Sabbath Bible study, and they said, Yeah, I we know those scriptures.
We understand.
Oh, okay.
We're gonna worship on Saturdays in heaven?
I'm just telling you what the scripture says
(26:59):
Now I'm praying they would drive back by again.
I I didn't get to finish
But we need to engage individuals.
Have the opportunity to talk with them.
Have the opportunity to share with them.
(27:20):
People are curious and want to know, what do you believe about Jesus?
Why is he your best friend?
This woman was curious and wanted to know.
We keep reading here in the verses, it says, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who
(27:49):
It is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with.
The well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?
(28:14):
She wanted to engage in conversation.
She was even willing to ask the right questions
This living water.
Now, this living water, it literally means
Running water.
Fresh water.
(28:37):
Water that is not in a cistern that is stagnant.
Water isn't that is not in a in a in a pond or lake that is stagnant.
It means moving water.
Fresh water.
This is living water.
Deep water out of the well is living water.
(28:57):
She understands living water this way, but she also may have understood what Jesus was talking about.
The Old Testament talks about keep your finger here, John 4.
We're going to come right back to it, but turn to Isaiah chapter 12.
(29:18):
Few Old Testament texts that kinda go along with this, Isaiah chapter 12.
I know I didn't put the words on the screen for you this time.
So uh making you do a little work for it, helping you to dig for yourself here just a little bit.
(29:40):
Isaiah chapter twelve
Verse 3, notice what it says here.
It says, Therefore, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
This kind of reference that this this living water is more than just what you drink.
(30:05):
It is a a salvation thing that is taking place.
You're there in the Old Testament.
Turn over a few pages.
Jeremiah chapter 2.
Still there in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah chapter 2.
(30:34):
Jeremiah chapter two, verse thirteen
Says, for my people have committed two evils.
They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters.
Who's the fountain of living waters?
Jesus, God here, for my people have committed two evils.
(30:58):
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns.
that can hold no water.
She may have been acquainted with these scriptures.
She may have understood that when
When Jesus was talking about living water, he was talking about those areas of salvation that could be available for her.
(31:24):
Come back to John.
I'm not going to take you to John 4 just yet.
I want you to turn over to John 7.
John 7, where G John mentions this living water again through the words of Jesus.
John 7, verse 37.
(31:50):
It says on the last day of that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
But this he spoke concerning the Spirit
(32:11):
whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
She may not have understood it in that great of detail how this living water represented the Holy Spirit filling the life.
But when John did, and when John writes in John 7, he explains it in the full detail that how the Holy Spirit is is going to be working in people's lives.
(32:44):
And in John 7 here, he kind of has in mind the you go study it now, Ezekiel chapter 47.
And he may have had in mind also Revelation chapter 21 and 22, where it talks about the water that is going to be coming forth from the throne of God, how the Holy Spirit is going to be available.
(33:07):
for all.
Come back to John chapter four
Verse 12, she's asks, are you greater than our father Jacob?
And when I read that, I just want to shake my head.
(33:28):
If only she knew.
Continue on verses thirteen
Through fifteen it says, Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
(33:52):
But the water that I shall give him
w will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.
Oh, she she she she catches on, but yet she she she she doesn't catch on.
(34:18):
I mean we're here in John chapter 4.
Do you know what was preceding John chapter 4?
Ah, yeah, you got my sense of humor here, didn't you?
Chapter 3.
Do you remember what's in chapter 3
Yeah, John 3.
16, and who was he talking to?
(34:40):
Nicodemus, the Pharisee that came to him at nighttime.
Asking questions.
The Pharisee that came at nighttime that didn't understand what Jesus was saying to him.
(35:01):
Here a woman, Samaritan woman, coming to him in broad daylight, I mean not coming to him, but meeting him at the well in broad daylight, and she doesn't seem to understand fully as well either.
But she seems to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
(35:25):
Jesus said, whoever drinks this water will never thirst.
Keep your finger here, John 4.
We're going to come back to it.
Isaiah chapter 49.
Isaiah chapter forty-nine, verse ten.
(35:53):
It says, They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them.
For he who has mercy on them will lead them even by the springs of water.
He will guide them.
I mean, this is beautiful imagery that is coming from the Old Testament that Jesus is drawing upon when he is referring to or talking with this woman that he is here at the well with.
(36:24):
I hope she understood some of these Old Testament scriptures and that she had something to to to draw from.
Oh, in Revelation 7, it says those that are following Jesus are He's going to take care of them, and they are not going to hunger or thirst.
(36:52):
John Six
Tells us that Jesus is going to take care of us.
He's going to satisfy all our needs.
Is Jesus your everything?
(37:12):
Verse 14 says that when we're going to have this fountain of water springing up,
Or some of your versions say welling up.
Do you know what it's like to have a fountain of water welling up?
Some of you remember singing that song, uh, spring up, O well, within my soul.
(37:34):
That fountain of water that keeps coming up over and over.
This is the same word that's used in Acts chapter 3.
Acts chapter 3, when Peter and John go to pray.
They met the lame man there at the temple.
Peter doesn't have any any funds to give him.
(37:56):
He says, But I'm going to give you what I have in the name of Jesus, rise.
Walk and it says the man went springing up.
Some of your versions, leaping.
It's the same Greek word that's going to happen with the fountains.
They're going to come leaping out of us.
(38:16):
We can't keep silent.
It says he went walking and I mean leaping and praising God because of his goodness.
It's that same word in Acts chapter 14 verse 10, where another one healed, sprang up.
This this living water is going to come from inside.
(38:37):
It's going to to spring up.
And overflow us.
Keep reading here verse sixteen.
It says, Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here
The woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said to her, You have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you are now have is not your husband
(39:01):
In that you spoke truly.
The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worship on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place one ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman,
Believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
(39:26):
You worship what you do not know.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit.
(39:56):
Oh, Jesus kind of twists things here and begins to get personal with her and says, Go call your husband.
She's not sure about that.
She says, I don't have a husband.
Jesus says, that's true.
(40:16):
You've had five husbands
Now, some individuals say, oh, she's had five husbands.
That means she's gotten divorced and remarried, divorced, remarried, divorced, remarried.
She's an immoral person.
She came comes out here to the well at noonday.
She's an immoral person.
That's reading something that the text doesn't say.
(40:37):
We don't know.
Maybe she is divorced.
Maybe five husbands died.
That would be another problem.
Why is she living with someone that is not her husband?
Why are they not legally married?
(40:58):
That's a question.
We don't know the answer to.
But what we do know, Jesus knows her past.
Jesus knows her, and at this point Jesus reveals enough to her to show that he knows her.
(41:28):
And he says, I still love you.
I'm engaging in conversation with you.
Even though there are a lot of barriers between us.
You know what Jesus says to you?
I know your past.
(41:52):
Now I want you to stop and think for just a moment about your past.
Are you excited for everybody to know about your past?
Are you excited that God knows about your past?
I mean, the Seventh-day Adventist, we have a uh a wonderful message about the sanctuary.
(42:14):
We have a wonderful message about the judgment.
You remember that message?
Sometimes we're embarrassed by that.
Friends, Jesus knows your past.
He knows your family secrets.
He knows the sin that you have in your life, even the sin that
(42:39):
Your spouse may not know about.
And Jesus says, I love you.
I died for you.
Because I love you.
(43:00):
Even though I know all about you.
This is good news.
Friends, that's good news.
Come judgment day
Right?
Amen.
(43:21):
That's good news.
Come judgment day.
Jesus knows all about your past.
He knows that list of sins has been kept in the books.
And he says, I love you anyway.
Hallelujah
(43:41):
What an awesome God we have.
And He's trying to communicate this to this woman here at the well in broad daylight.
And she wants to change the topic.
(44:02):
It's easier for us to change the topic when it gets uncomfortable
She wants to talk theology and have a little debate with him.
What is true worship?
We we worship on this mountain and you guys worship on in Jerusalem at Mount Moriah.
(44:24):
Is there one that's
We can handle talking theology.
We can handle theological debates.
But it's this getting to know each other.
This touchy-feely stuff
(44:47):
We don't like that very well.
We don't want people to know our stuff.
And so we kinda
Where should we worship?
How should we worship?
What kind of music should we have at worship?
(45:07):
How should we dress?
What should we wear?
Argue about this stuff.
What kind of food should we eat?
What should we not eat?
We would like to debate these things.
Is this a clean food or is this not a clean food?
We we want to argue about this stuff instead of taking care of what really needs to be taken care of
(45:35):
Jesus was was trying to But Jesus doesn't go back there
She's asked a theological question.
He gives her a theological answer.
He tells her
I'm sorry the Samaritans they're not they don't know what they're worshiping.
(46:01):
They worship on this mountain, but that's not the right way, place, time.
They're worshiping idols.
They're worshiping demons.
The Jews worship where they're supposed to worship because salvation is from the Jews.
(46:23):
I mean, if you go through and you begin to study, you begin to unpack this, salvation is from the Jews because God made a covenant with Abraham.
And God told Abraham, as part of the covenant, you will be a blessing to all nations.
Sometimes the Jews forgot that.
(46:45):
They forget that God called them out of Egypt, and God tried to save as many of the Egyptians as he could.
When he called them out of Egypt.
Several came with them out of Egypt.
He gave them the promised land of Canaan.
And we we're reading in our sabis go lesson of how many of those people in Canaan are getting destroyed
(47:12):
But God saved as many of them as he could.
As many as would accept the message.
God's not trying to kill people.
He's not trying to punish people.
He's not trying to keep people out of heaven.
He's trying to find every way he can to incorporate people into
(47:34):
The system of Judaism.
I know some of you all of a sudden go, well, the Bible text says all Israel will be saved.
Somebody asked me about that this last week.
And I said, well, that's what the text says.
I figure Paul knows what he's talking about.
(47:58):
And I gave him a Bible study, and only Jesus is the true Israel.
And you and I are only Israel.
We're true Israel if we're in Jesus.
Oh Yeah, all Israel will be saved
(48:19):
Salvation comes from the Jews.
The Jews had the sanctuary service trying to teach them the proper message about Jesus.
The Jews had the message of Messiah's coming.
Yeah?
Samaritans, they had a message that there was going to be a Messiah.
She knew about a Messiah that was coming, but she did not understand it correctly
(48:43):
It's okay, the Jews didn't understand it correctly either.
Jesus tried to straighten her out with her theology there in verse 23 and 24.
But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him.
(49:05):
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
She understands a little bit, but not fully
She is though is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and so she continues the conversation and she says
(49:31):
The woman says to him, I know the Messiah is coming who is called the Christ.
When he comes, he will tell us all things
She wants to to continue the the discourse.
She doesn't doesn't fight against what he has said.
She carries on
The conversation she wants to know more about the Messiah because she has a hunger and thirst on the inside.
(49:55):
And Jesus says to her, I who speak to you am He
I wish the disciples had not shown up at this point in time.
I wish we had more conversation that took place.
(50:19):
I wish I knew what if there was more dialogue and what else had been said.
But according to what is written.
That is the description that Jesus gave to her.
I wish I understood.
Why Jesus gave this crystal clear affirmation of who he was to a Samaritan woman
(50:47):
Instead of Nicodemus in chapter 3.
Or instead of to his disciples prior to this time
Why her?
I mean, in my way of thinking, when I look at scripture, wrong ethnicity
(51:10):
Wrong gender for Jesus to be revealing this to for this time and place.
Wrong religious affiliation.
Why would he reveal that he is the Messiah to her?
(51:36):
The best answer I've come up with is God's ways are not my ways.
God's ways are not our ways.
God does not think like we think here on earth today.
Hallelujah.
(51:57):
That woman that was the wrong ethnicity, the wrong religious affiliation.
She scampers away and goes into town when the disciples show up
(52:17):
Too many men, only one woman.
A conversation takes place with Jesus and his disciples that's recorded at this time.
It says the woman left her water pot and went away.
The disciples came and said, Here, eat something, Rabbi.
(52:43):
He said to them, I have food to eat of which you know not.
Therefore the disciples said to one another,
Has anyone brought him anything to eat?
Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his works.
(53:05):
Do you not say there are still four months and then the harvest?
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
Already ripe for harvest.
Where were they supposed to be looking?
(53:26):
Jerusalem was a long ways away.
Before these disciples were commissioned
Before they were sent out to the villages around them.
This woman goes back to her village and she proclaims in the village (53:47):
Come see a man that knows everything about me.
And it says the village came out to see him
And because of what they heard, because of what they saw, because of the way they were received by him, they invited him to stay.
(54:16):
Who was welcoming whom?
Were they welcoming Jesus into their village?
Or was Jesus welcoming them?
Into his harvest
(54:39):
What a story is here.
God wants to welcome all who are hungry and thirsty.
for righteousness.
His arms are wide open.
He wants you and you and you and you and you to come in.
(55:06):
To his house to be part of his harvest.
But he's not just worried about you, he has commissioned you to go to your village and to tell.
Come meet a friend who knows everything about me and loves me anyway
(55:33):
Friends, there's people that are looking for a place of belonging.
God has a place.
God has a place we learned last week for tax collectors.
God has a place for for the outcast.
(55:54):
God has a place for
Those that you think are not good enough.
For the drunkard in the village.
Avero, the praise team can come up now.
(56:16):
Avero Natalia
Had been living their life in comfort in their country of Chile.
They had been married for nine years.
They had a three-year-old child.
They went to church one day, and the pastor was preaching about
(56:40):
being a volunteer missionary and going out and telling other people about Jesus.
The couple looked at each other and they said
We have a three-year-old.
They would never want a family to come.
Number two, we are in our thirties.
(57:04):
They just are looking for college students to come be volunteers.
But they went and talked to the pastors, can said, asked, can we do this as a family?
Are we too old for this?
Is it only for university students?
(57:26):
And the pastor said, No, it's for everyone and anyone.
If you hear the Lord calling you to go, you should go as a missionary.
A couple wasn't sure about it, but they decided they would go to the find out what the training was like for volunteers.
(57:50):
And so they went to
the vividfaith.
org website.
They took the training for for volunteers.
At the end of their volunteer time, they were asked the question, Would you be willing to go if the right position became available for you?
And their reply was, Yeah, we could do one year in missions.
(58:18):
They weren't prepared for the reply.
They said, we have a place for you.
We want you to go to Easter Island.
Well, that's still part of Chile.
So yeah, we could do that.
Easter Island.
(58:39):
They said, uh, problem is we need you there in two weeks
Could you get ready in two weeks to go and serve?
Yeah, Avero and Natalyuk were not sure they could get ready in two weeks either.
But they said if God wants us there, he can work miracles and he can make it happen.
(59:00):
And so Alvaro sold his dentist practice.
Natalia left her place of employment as a physical therapist.
They sold their belongings.
Because they were submitting their plans to God.
Two weeks later, they were on an airplane that flew for five hours and 30 minutes to Easter Island.
(59:28):
That was only 2,350 miles from the next closest airport.
You realize 2,350 miles on an island, your next closest airport is 2,350 miles away.
(59:55):
While it is still part of Chile, their words are it is a very different culture.
In Chile, it was mostly Roman Catholic.
Strong influence there on the mainland in Chile.
People on the island, they were not Roman Catholic.
(01:00:21):
They had ancestor worship.
How do you relate to people with ancestor worship?
How do you relate to people that are used to worshiping their ancestors?
Easter Island, 63 square miles.
(01:00:43):
That's very different than living in Chile that has a that spreads for 2,650 miles.
Easter Island, three thousand eight hundred people
That's not a large mission field.
(01:01:12):
And the tides didn't always allow the boats to dock, and sometimes the boats simply moved on.
Complicating matters was the fact that people on Easter Island did not like individuals from the mainland.
(01:01:34):
And so Alvero and Natalia began their work
And God did amazing things.
Averyl began to work in tourism instead of dentistry.
(01:01:54):
His wife, Natalia, got a job at the local hospital.
They bought a small motorcycle and they began going door to door, making visits, helping people.
Engaging in conversations and giving Bible studies.
(01:02:16):
The first Sabbath
They went to the local Seventh-day Adventist church and there were ten people there.
Their words, elderly.
(01:02:37):
For the next year, they did everything they could in that island to tell people about Jesus.
They started a Pathfinder Club and they had 25 children show up for their first meeting.
They started an adventure program.
(01:02:58):
They had thirty children show up for adventures.
After Pathfinders and Adventures started, the children began bringing their parent to church.
(01:03:18):
At the end of one year, they had a Pathfinder and Adventure program with 95 children in the program.
They were having baptisms because they were g willing to give one year.
(01:03:51):
Are you willing to go?
to your village because of what God has done in your life
Is a fountain springing up from inside of you
(01:04:15):
Do you know people that you can tell?
Do you know people that you can say, come
And see this man who knows everything about me
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